스미스는 소설을 번역하면서 한강 작가와 계속 의견을 주고 받았다고 전했다. 특히 소설 마지막 부분에 주인공 영혜의 언니 인혜가 한 말, “꿈속에선, 꿈이 전부인 것 같잖아. 하지만 깨고 나면 그게 전부가 아닌 거란 걸 알지…(후략)” 번역을 두고 가장 오랜 시간 의견을 주고 받았다. 스미스는 이를 “surely the dream isn’t all there is?…”로 번역했다.

“‘surely the dream isn’t all there is?’ 하고 영혜에게 말하는 대목에서 (한강) 작가는 인혜의 확신 없는 머뭇거림이 영어권 독자들에게 전달되지 않을 것을 우려했고, 이에 나는 영어의 ‘surely’란 단어가 어째서 확신을 의미하기보다는 오히려 화자가 스스로를 설득하고자 노력하는 인상을 주기 마련인지 설명해야 했다.”

Or in my rough translation:

Smith stated that she kept discussing with Han Kang over the course of translation process. It particularly took the longest amount of time to settle on the translation of words from Inhye, an elder sister of Younghye the protagonist; she translated that as "surely the dream isn’t all there is? [...]".

"Han Kang worried that English readers might not get a hint of Inhye's inconclusive hesitation from that line, so I had to explain her how 'surely' in English rather often conveys sort of self-delusion instead of confidence."

[1] https://www.khan.co.kr/culture/culture-general/article/20241...

If you want to complain about life being unfair like "an emo 6th grader" that's your choice, I was just pointing out that she wrote the opposite of that. Your original comment appeared to equate her statement with "life is unfair" when that was the opposite of what she wrote (as it was translated, at least). Critique her writing all you want, but critique what she wrote, not what she didn't.

This requires not only linguistic fluency but also a deep understanding of both cultures, as well as the literary traditions of both. If an English author makes a subtle allusion to a passage from Shakespeare, for example, how do you translate that nuance to a language that hasn't had Shakespeare?

I suppose it's much easier to achieve this between Dutch and English, than between Korean and English. The pool of people who move about freely between the latter is much smaller, for both geographical and historical reasons.

Had to force myself reading to the end of trilogy, above goes into overdrive.